It's hard to root against Jackie Stiles or Katie Douglas or Sue Bird in this weekend's Final Four. But Notre Dame is a team of goodie-goodies, and that is purely by design.

"A school like Notre Dame, you have to get the kids who will fit in," says Fighting Irish coach Muffet McGraw.

Back in '91, McGraw recruited a phenom point guard out of Pennsylvania named Michelle Marciniak, who had a reputation of wanting to run the whole show. Within one week of arriving on campus, coach and player were clashing, and the volatile freshman was on the phone looking to transfer. "Spinderella" did head to Tennessee after the season, and suddenly McGraw had a reputation that she could not hold on to big-time recruits.

"Having Michelle here was the worst year of my life," McGraw admits. From that point forward, she told herself, she would only recruit kids she liked -- rather than the preps people told her to take.

McGraw did hold on to stars like Beth Morgan and Katryna Gaither, and that was a prelude to the class of 2001: Meaghan Leahy is credited with calming fellow freshman Ruth Riley when neither could pick up the offense in their first couple practices; Imani Dunbar, babysat McGraw's 9-year-old son Murphy; Kelley Siemon, who actually apologized to a fan for making him wait too long for an autograph -- at a road game; Niele Ivey, who has returned from two ACL surgeries to be the team's spiritual leader. (And comic, doing the best impersonations of her coach and teammates imaginable.)

And then there is Riley, the culmination of everything McGraw has done at Notre Dame. We all know Notre Dame wouldn't be at this point without Riley, but just as important is that Riley wouldn't be here without Notre Dame. The Academic All-America has positively thrived in the small-town atmosphere just 50 miles from the farm where she grew up. Ask any of the kids who are wearing her headbands and No. 00 at the Joyce Center -- the ones who Riley stays two hours after games greeting. Ask the people in the athletic department who say they want their children to grow up to be just like Ruth. Or ask the 30 or so centers she's dominated as Naismith Player of the Year.

Michelle Marciniak was the MVP when Tennessee won the national championship in 1996. Perhaps recruiting her set Notre Dame back five years. But you won't hear McGraw complaining.

Dan Hodes covers the women's hoops for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at dbhodes@hotmail.com.